Wayne: Birds of South Carolina. 89 



had not completed their full complements of eggs by May 20. 

 The nest of this species is always excavated in dead trees and 

 generally within twelve feet of the ground. The eggs, which 

 usually number five, are glossy white and measure .80X-60. 

 Audubon says in Birds of America: 1 



I have observed that during their stay in the Floridas, Georgia, and the 

 Carolinas, their breast and belly are so soiled by the carbonaceous matter adhering 

 to the trees, in consequence of the burning of the grass at that season, that one 

 might be apt to take a specimen in that state, as belonging to a different species. 



This peculiarity of the plumage of the under parts (as noted by 

 Audubon) is not due to contact with trees that have been burned, 

 but is natural in this species, which ranges from South Carolina to 

 Florida and Texas. Audubon's plate of the male of this wood- 

 pecker plainly shows the characteristic brownish color of the 

 under parts. 



162. Dryobates borealis (VieilL). Red-cockaded Wood- 

 pecker. 



The Red-cockaded Woodpecker is to be met with only in open 

 pine woods, and is usually absent where the forest is dark and 

 heavily timbered. During the breeding season several pairs 

 breed in close proximity, seeming to like each other's company; in 

 fact this species almost always goes in small parties at all seasons 

 of the year. 



Many authors, including Audubon, have stated that this spe- 

 cies breeds in dead pine trees. The latter, in his Birds of Amer- 

 ica, 2 says that the "nest is not unfrequently bored in a decayed 

 stump about thirty feet high." I have seen perhaps a thousand 

 holes in which this woodpecker had bred or was breeding, and 

 every one was excavated in a living pine tree, ranging from eight- 

 teen to one hundred feet above the ground. This bird never 

 lays its eggs until the pine gum pours freely from beneath and 

 around the hole, and in order to accelerate the flow the birds 

 puncture the bark to the ' ' skin ' ' of the tree, thereby causing the 

 gum to exude freely. This species, unlike the Pileated Wood- 

 pecker, returns to the same hole year after year until it can no 

 longer make the gum exude. But like the Pileated Woodpecker, 

 it is much attached to the tree in which it has first made its nest, 

 and as long as it can find a suitable spot it will continue to ex- 



i IV, 250. * IV, 255. 



